House Approves Bill to Amend The Medical Act

The House of Representatives has passed a Bill, which seeks to amend the Medical Act by stipulating that requirements of continued medical education be satisfied prior to the issuance of a practising certificate, and to increase membership of the Medical Council to 15 persons.
The amendments will also provide that the number of non-medical persons on the Council be increased from one to three persons.
Piloting the Bill in the House yesterday (October 5), Minister of Health, John Junor explained that “we have long been advocating the need for continuing education in all the professional areas as part of the conditions for re-registration of these professionals”.
“We have succeeded so far in having it in the nursing field and we are now extending it to medical practitioners, because we feel it adds value to the service that our citizens get from practitioners,” he added.
The Minister explained that the increase in the number of non-medical persons on the Medical Council would not disturb the balance in terms of its professional status. “We felt that with only one non-medical person, you may not have had sufficient opportunity for consumers of this service to express themselves as to how the Council should operate,” he pointed out.